Thursday, 25 October 2012

Bad weather, push on

This mirning the weather forcaster confirmed that bad weather was on its way.

I had planned to move the Littlees (LGs) Cube and run in three stages to its final destination, the theory being that they wouldn't get stressed if their Cube was still appriximately where they left it. My thought, prior to this morningm was to simply turn the Cube round 180 degrees (so it would be facing the correct way) and move it back a bit,meaning it ws just two more adjustments to get it into place. The Garden had other thoughts.

The Cube and its run are about 3metres long. It's about 1m wide, but then has a fixed skirt all the way round which is excellent for fox-restistance but a pain in the b*m to move. The garden is rather undulating, and has shrubs at strategic points which are just that little bit too close togethet to get the Cube through.

I wish I'd taken photos to illustrate just how well our garden is designed to thwart any attempt at manouevering such a large object

I started by trying to turn the Cube round, because once it was pushed back there would be no room to do so. As I was on my own, I was able to manhandle it, and I got it part way round. I was then stumped by a rose bush. Nothing for it, I gave the rose a good prune, and managed to get the Cube up and over it, with the rose in the middle. One side was now trapped on some plant or other that was growing near the pampas. Chop chop, snip snip. No problem now. It's green bin day today, so I was able to dispose of the evidence.

Finally, te Cube was around and pushed back a bit. Perfect. A bit awkward for getting round (Big Girls (BGs) run on one side, and some shrubby things beginning with E (Eleagnea or somesuch) on the other. Tough. It was only for a couple of days. And then I realised the skirt was sitting on my Vinca.

There was no room (at all) for a sideways move. Sod the vinca. I had lots of it. I'd grown it all from cuttings, it was taking over a bed in the driveway, who needed this bit. But this bit had flourished underneath these enormous shrubs. It had survived chickens. It wasn't out of control. I couldn't leave it to die like this.

So I had to move the Cube backwards again. And a long way. And So far back that there was no way the LGs would realise it was their home, just moved a bit.

The bGs were very excited at having a new run in their area to play with. So, I had to shut everyone in their respective runs, with some corn, in the hope of reacquainting the LGs with "home".

At least it means that their bed is next to the BGs Cube, so there will be a lot of protection if there is bad weather.

And we can leave it as it is, while we work out whether to connect it to the BGs covered run in some form of semi-permanent way. It's only semi permanent as we will be wanting an empty Cube next Spring for next year's hatch.